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Alright, I've never done a casing, so this is prolly a silly question... I"ve heard people mention casing cakes whole. Does that mean a tray full of cakes packed together, or could you case each cake individually. If the cake was sitting on a verm layer and was covered with a layer of casing material... Would this be a casing? Would it produce more than simply setting it in the terrarium? Blah, blah...Somebody please help.

Sweet, thanks for the tip. But...I got one more question...I'm growing PF right now, which will start pinning in the jar-right? So in order to make a casing, do I wait for primordia before birthing or just full colonization? Hmmm... thanks all.

"Roll up a sliff and throw away the day, with marijuana in your brain..." Lords of Acid

All strains can pin in the jars if exposed to light. NOT just the majic PF strain...lol. Keep the jars in the dark until colonization is complete. Depending on the size of your casing you may decide to do different things with your cakes. For example, a small casing (inna little loaf pan or the like) made with say 2 jars, I might do like this here: Cut the two cakes in half. If you are using the short wide mouth 1/2 pints, cut the cake from thop to bottom in somwhat equal halves. If you are using tall half pints, cut them accross the plane again, in halfs. After placing a layer of casing on the bottom of the pan. I might suggest for something this size, about 1/2 ". Others may have differing opinions. Vermiculite is certainly a suitable material for beginner and expert. It is exceptional for NOT getting contamed. Pack three of the halves into the pan as they fit best. They should not be crammed or mashed to excess. With the remaining 1 half, GENTLY, start crumbling it. start with one edge and break off small pieces to fill in the gaps between your already positioned halves in there. Wiggle the pieces around to get a tight fit without mashing too much. A nice level settling is preferred. When you have finished, start sprinkling some of your pre-moisteded (read for judging moisture content, I am not going to get into this here) casing until you have placed a 1/2" layer on top of the cakes. Place back in the dark, preferrable in your terrarium so that you can maintain the humidity. 100% will be fine if not preferred for this recolonization time Within about a week, depending on the strain, the pieces will have fused back together and will be sending up some furry critters up through the casing. It is now time for light and air exchange. Continue as you normally would for cakes just try to keep the humidity slightly lower say around 90% so that you casing can slowly evaporate. It is A-ok to mist the casing if it appears to be gettin' a little parched. Don't mist too heavily ar one time. As soon as you see pins, nix the misting...Voila you have just flushed a CASING. For larger ventures of 6-12 cakes or so, leave 'em whole. Save your last cake to crumble between....you dig? By the way, coco fiber is IN MY OPIONION just as easy to use as verm. AND the mycelium will colonize it a better. Stick some (pre-moistened) in a small tupperware and nuke it for 10 minutes. Allow to cool before applying. A medium squeeze will remove excess water

Ok, so I made the first casing... I sacraficed two old pints that were almost as old as me. They're constantly growing, and were almost finished. I cut out all of the uncolonized parts and threw the chunks into a freezer zippy (props to puscle) to break them up. For a tray I used a 64 oz. gladlock surrounded by foil and tape. Put the verm layer on bottom about 1/2" (25ml per cup) then misted with very weak h2o2 solution, spread out the chunks, covered with more verm mix and misted lightly. I covered it loosely with foil and put it into a perlite humid cooler. I put saranwrap over the top before i put the lid on...Will this be TOO airtight? Should i fan the cooler out before i start giving it light? Thanks for everything.

I hope the chunks were not randomly tossed upon some verm. Did you push the chunks together into a nice group. It would be better to have a nice dence group in the middle of the casing container with area around the perimeter than to scatter the chunks about. Or was there an even layer of cake spread out on top of the bottom casing layer? They should be completely covered in the casing. The saran wrap is ok i guess for the colonizing of the casing. Air exchange is not necessary until the fruiting process is initialized. Perhaps once a day, peel back the saran and give it a few wafts with an index card or something just to keep a little bit o' air exchange. This might discourage any potential molds that like CO2 build up...ie the cobweb. If you are in a drafty area. It is probably better not to uncover the cooler unless necessary. Verm is not as likely to contam as orgainc materials. Because it is not organic, it will not colonize all that densely. When you see a few whispy bits of mycelium comming out evenly accross the top casing layer, give it some light...

No, no, no...I didn't just toss on chunks at random. I first put down the bottom verm layer, misted lightly. Next, I began spreading chunks on the verm (completely covering the verm layer) anf finished by filling in gaps with little peices of mycelium. It should be decently snug and even-let's hope. Then I spooned out the casing verm over the mycelium was covered about 1/4-1/2" give or take. The surface is pretty even, with a few small mounds. It's been almost exactly 48 hours now...I checked it a little while ago, and there's two tiny little spots where some (whispy,yes) mycelium has pushed through. At least I hope it's mycelium-it doesn't look like cobweb. BTW, I took the saran wrap off yesterday afternoon, screw it. The casing IS on perlite though...when the casing starts colonizing should I take it off? Thanks for all the help!

"but it was just a fantasy, the wall was to high as you can see..." pink floyd

I think I might leave the saran wrap or some other suitable cover on the cooler. Remove it only to fan or mist and then replace it. Perhaps a piece of plexiglass from Home Depot or Lowes might be a little more convenient for you. It can be picked up for about 4-10 dollars depending on the size of piece you need. Keeping the top covered will maintain the moisture. Leaving it uncovered may allow for evaporation to be too excellerated. As for the preparation of the casing, it sounds like you did fine...The casing tray you say is sitting on top of wet perlite in the cooler? Leave the perlite in there. It is your humidity source. Give it another 3-7 days for the chunks to fuse back toghether. Then, start the light. There will be an additional 4-7 days before hyphal knots (initial pins) appear. This will allow for additional networking of the mycelium before fruiting. In my expirience, the verm will never colonize densly but that is just fine. A casing that is too densly colonized is no longer a casing but part of the substrate. The casing should remain able to hold water that is its function.